


"Are you an Engineer?"

by cactusthespacecat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galaxy Garrison, Garrison fic, Heith Week, Heith Week 2017, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, M/M, hunk is a sunshine boy who wants everyone to be happy, hunk is not in the (first) chapter but he's my biooi, kunk, lance and keith fighting over hunks attention, pidge and keith interaction, should be called kunk, this is how keith got kicked out of the garrison, this was pointed out to me that this mirrors the invisible maze, why is the official ship name of keith and hunk not kunk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2018-11-18 18:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11296083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cactusthespacecat/pseuds/cactusthespacecat
Summary: This fic drops you straight into a pre-Voltron Galaxy Garrison, to an omniscient view of Katie Holt breaking in to get information.  Desperate for help, she employs Keith. When Katie is caught, he makes it his mission to find this mysterious person. This search leads him to Hunk, a skilled engineer. Keith , convinced that Hunk was the person that he helped that night, befriends him. This, truly, is what caused the rivalry between Keith and Lance. One of the love of Hunk, the sunshine boy.





	1. "In which Katie/Pidge is breaking in and is not an engineer"

**Author's Note:**

> *FINISHED Y'ALL* There will be four chapters: A scene with Katie/Pidge and Keith, "In which Pidge is breaking in and is not an engineer"  
> A scene with Keith and Hunk, "In which Hunk is very confused and is not Pidge"  
> A scene with Hunk and Lance, "In which Lance is totally very not jealous"  
> and a wrap up scene, "In which Hunk and Keith find each other and Lance is not an engineer".
> 
> If we can get o0ne thousand (1000) subscribes!!! i will regularly update!!!1!!
> 
> But for now: Have the first chapter:

Keith bit his thumb, ripping off the skin on the edge of the nail, running the other hand lightly along the cold steel wall. This wasn't the first time that he had snuck out of his room to roam the silent night hallways of the Galaxy Garrison, but it was the first time that he heard footsteps. Not wanting to feel stupid if it was nothing to be worried about, he continued stalking the corridors, his ears pricked. 

Almost a mile away but under the same roof, Katie Holt scurried, a laptop teetering, sometimes on one bony hip and sometimes under one cloaked arm. She wore all black, coated in huge swathes of cloth that made her appear much larger than she was, complete with a heavy hood that entirely obscured her face. Despite all of those precautions, however, she dashed from entrance camera to entrance camera, disabling them. Scuttling down the hall, she got to one with an obvious blind spot and camped behind it for a moment, her hands clicking away at the keyboard in front of her. Then she grinned, the cameras safely under her control. 

“Who’s there?” Keith heard the sudden bark of dialogue and looked up from the grey steel floor in front of him, his heart stopping. Would they kick him out of the Garrison for breaking curfew? There was no answer to the gruff call, so Keith stood, motionless, in the center of the hall, far away from his assigned bunk, unsure of what to do. 

Katie heard something similar: footsteps stamping fear into her heart. She slid into a crevice and shivered, her own breath rattling her whole body. Trying to look at her laptop that showed the footage for all of the halls and stay hidden and quiet became so difficult that Katie almost groaned aloud. She needed help, but the only people that came to mind were billions of miles away in space. 

Keith still stood, knees bent slightly, in the middle of the hall, but the guard, or whoever had called out, seemed to have left. Creeping now, lower to the ground, his arms outstretched to keep his balance, he started back towards his room. That is, until he heard the slamming of a door and thought better of it. According to the official map of the Galaxy Garrison, he could loop around the side of the dorm block and get to his room that way. But he needed to get to the common area, a huge, circular monster of a room that connected the classrooms to the dormitory area. 

Flicking frantically through the camera feeds, Katie was having a breakdown. This had seemed so much easier in her head when she was planning on sneaking in to the Garrison to find out what really happened to her brother and dad. Nothing seemed to be swaying her way. Then her eyes locked on the boy. He was slowly making his way towards the common area, and seemed the perfect candidate to help her, seeing as he was already hiding from the Garrison thugs. A plan forming, Katie found a computer lab on the cameras. She couldn't pull any Kerberos data off of them, seeing as they were student computers, but she could pull something else off. Sets of wireless headphones perched on the keyboards, just asking to be reprogrammed. 

Katie made a break for it, black fabric flowing like wings behind her and her laptop tucked snugly under one arm. She dashed through the passageways, hearing the footsteps get louder and her breathing get more ragged. Katie had a vague thought that she needed to get into better shape, but she tried not to dwell on it as she reprogrammed as she ran. 

The center of the Garrison building came into view, and Katie could see the black haired boy standing, stunned, in worn pajamas, in the middle of the room. Katie suddenly had second thoughts. To her, it didn’t seem like this guy had ever touched a computer in his life. His back had no hunch; his eyes looked wide and healthy. Suddenly, Katie realized that she hadn’t been looking at her feet, or where she was going. Unfortunately, she only noticed that because a scrap of black fabric had floated underneath one foot. Katie slid, her feet tangling. Katie flipped in midair, trying to preserve her laptop from the fall. 

This created a human torpedo barreling towards Keith. Ever since the black mass had entered the room, Keith had stood, frozen and stunned. Being tackled, he behaved like glass, cracking down the middle and lying on the ground. “WHat the-?” He cried softly, shoving the mass off of himself.

“I need help.” The person dressed in black hissed, “Something happened to the Kerberos mission and they’re not telling us. Put this headset on, open this laptop, and hide.” 

There was a thundering of footsteps and the black-clad figure shot up as if electrocuted. “I wouldn’t blame you if you bailed, but hear me out,” and the person was off, leaving Keith to the rapidly approaching guards. He dashed out of the commons, making a beeline for a dark doorway and scurried inside, into what he found was a janitor’s closet. 

In the closet, Keith opened the laptop to reveal row after row of live camera feed. He could see the halls, and even… Was that his room?

 

He heard a muffled angry muttering and put on the headset. “Hello?” He asked, timid. 

The muttering stopped, making way for a voice. “Kay, so for the longest time, and by that I mean for, like, as long as people have been saying that the Kerberos mission failed because of something that the crew did, I’ve been way way suspicious about it, you know?” 

There was a moment of heavy breathing and Keith nodded. “I get that. I feel the same. So how do you plan on finding out what actually happened?” 

Katie ran and ran, hearing her heavy footsteps slam against the hard Garrison ground. She grinned underneath her cloak. “That’s where you come in. I need to get to clear the way to the computer room. Do you see me on the screen?” 

Keith did: A tiny dot dashing down the halls, pursued by larger dots that were just a few cameras behind. “Yeah.”

“Well, get me to the control room. Direct me, and warn me when people are coming.” Katie turned a sharp corner, nearly hitting the wall. 

“Wrong way, wrong way!” Keith cried. “Sorry, I didn’t know what we were doing quite yet.” The sigh nearly deafened him.

“Okay, dude, where to now?” Katie skidded to a stop and turned, only to see a flock of gun-slinging Galaxy thugs, dashing after her.

“Not that way?” The voice over her headpiece said and her mouth flatlined.

“Thanks, muppet.”

“Dodge left and go back the way you came, they’ve left a weird opening.” Keith held his breath as the figure did as he said. The black cloth just grazed one of the sentries. 

As Katie dashed away, the voice in her ear spoke up again. “Did you call me muppet?”

Katie grinned, her breath hitching as she talked. “What else am I supposed to call you?”

“I don’t know, what do I call you?”

Katie thought for just a second. “Pidge.”  
“Like pidgeon? Why would you want to be named after a bird?”  
Pidge sighed. “No. Like- Pidge. What do I call you?”  
Keith smiled. “What about Cat?” Pidge almost skidded to a stop in the middle of the hall.  
“What are you- some kind of 'rawr means I love you’ scene kid?” 

“What?” Keith sputtered, “No! I just mean that I'm right behind you and you're Pidge, like pidgeon, and cats are right behind pigeons, like, chasing them.”

“Whatever, Kittyboy.” Pidge said, and the voice in her headset started to sigh.  
But shouts interrupted the exhalation. “Kitty? Kitty?! What's going on?”

“Be right back.” Pidge heard, then cringed so hard that she stumbled at a loud metallic clattering that blasted into her ears. She threw the headphones off of her head and onto her shoulders, hoping beyond hope that this boy, whoever he was, was okay. 

Keith, across the compound, had been found out. Shouts had gathered around the broom closet until he could no longer hear anything else. “Be right back?” He cringed at his own words. But the pounding on the door made him freeze. 

Pidge ran blindly, technically. She had no idea where she was going. She just ran. And she was running out of steam. She turned a corner, only to find a swarm of people, guns prickling. She screamed, turned back, and kept running. “Kitty! Kitty!” She gasped for air, “Where are you?! I need some help here!”

Keith, in the broom closet, looked up. There was a rafter, stretching across the short length of the room. Trying to make as little sound as possible for the guards pounding on the locked door, he scaled a shelf along one wall, the laptop under one arm and the headphones slung around his neck. 

He shimmied onto the rafter, gasping for breath. He had a vague thought that he needed to get in better shape. But the thought passed as the door slammed open, rattling the shelves. “Who's in here?” 

Keith held his breath. “There's no one here sir.” A voice said gruffly. There was a loud, distorted bark from outside that Keith couldn't quite understand, and the person left, shutting the door behind them. 

Pidge was dashing down yet another corridor, and at this point she was positive that her former partner was dead, or worse, had abandoned her. She tried to think back to the directions that Kitty had given her, but nothing was surfacing.

Keith's mind raced, and he opened the laptop, balancing it on the beam. He put the headphones on, only to be greeted by muttered curses. “Pidge?” He hissed, trying not to alert the thugs outside, “Pidge?!”

Pidge, flattened against a door frame while she waited for guards to pass, sighed in relief. “Thank goodness you're back. What happened?” 

Keith shrugged subconsciously, nearly sending himself tumbling to the floor below. “I almost got caught but I hid in the rafters of a janitor closet.”

“Frickin sweet, Kitty.”

Keith grinned. “I thought so. Now, from where you're at, you're going to head right and then make a beeline for the door at the end of that hall. It doesn't look important, but that's the one.”

“Thanks, Kitty. I don't know what I would do without you.”

“Probably die.” Pidge laughed at Keith's deadpan voice, but he had hardly taken a breath before continuing. “So what are you?”

“Excuse me?” Pidge panted,her breathing ragged from the running. 

“I mean, do I know you, Pidge?”

Pidge snorted, smiling, “No. And if all goes to plan you never will.”

“Rude.” Keith said, but he was also smiling.  
“Just saying. I want my information and to blast.” Pidge stopped dead, her feet and legs tingling, as a guard rushed around a corner a few intersections down. 

“So you're going to leave the Garrison for good? Wouldn't that be suspicious if you just stop coming to class?” Keith's eyes scanned the laptop, his legs clutching the beam as hard as he could. 

“Kitty, I'm not-” 

Keith didn’t listen, barreling on. “Are you a fighter pilot? You'd be in my classes then.”

“No, I'm not-” Pidge’s breath came in ragged jumps as she started jogging again. 

“Okay, cargo pilot? I don't know any of them; that would make sense.” 

“Kitty, I'm not-” 

“Ooh! You're an engineer!” that would explain how you dismantled the cameras!” 

“Kitty that's not what engineers do…” 

“So you are an engineer!” Keith grinned, triumphant. “I swear I'll find you.” 

Pidge was dumbfounded, and still not an engineer. If she were anywhere near the voice in her ears, she would have slapped him. 

“Pidge!” Kitty suddenly cried, making Pidge stop in her tracks.

“What?”

“You passed the door, go two doors back. And hurry, there's two Garrison dudes coming your way.”

“Thanks, Kitty.” Pidge reeled around and dashed towards the door, a narrow opening in the Garrison walls. 

“You're in. Have at it, pigeon.”

Pidge chose to ignore the crack, slipping into the huge office chair that sat in front of the computer. 

Keith could hear the clacking of the keyboard through the microphone, and he had a inane idea that somehow, so could everyone else in the building. 

After what seemed like literal years,Pidge sighed in relief. “Kitty, we were right. Something did happen to the Kerberos mission. It wasn't a crew failure.”

Keith didn't know whether to cheer or cry. On one hand, Shiro was not at fault for the loss of the crew. On the other, what had been?

He was about to ask that very question to Pidge, but he was interrupted by an ungodly scream. 

“Pidge?” Keith said, eyes wide. What had just happened? “Pidge?!” There was radio silence. No cursing, no muttering, no keyboard clacking. “Pidge!” He screamed. 

There was an answering scream, but it didn't come from the headset. 

Keith jumped from the rafter, sending the laptop and keyboard crashing to the ground. 

“Kitty!!” The rasping cry came from far across the compound, but it ripped into Keith's heart as if Pidge were standing right next to him. 

He thought about screaming back, but thought better when he heard pounding footsteps. Instead he took a shuddering breath, standing in the middle of the hall, and listened to the strangled cries of his new friend. 

“I have to find where they went! Why won't you tell me the truth?” 

Then Pidge got louder, calling to him. “Kitty! Something intercepted the ship! Something is out there! They could be still alive! Help me find them!”

Keith's blood boiled. 

“Pidge, I swear I'll find the truth for you. I won't stop until I do,” he hissed.

And for a long moment, he was torn between running to help Pidge, and going back to his dorm. 

But all too soon, the cries faded, and he no longer had a choice. 

Keith, still watching for guards, drug himself back to his bed, knowing that he would not catch a wink of sleep. 

 

*  
*  
*

Somehow, hours later, Keith awoke, his mind having reduced the events of the last night to a fever dream. 

He was groggy only for a moment, when he suddenly remembered two things: The night before had really happened; and he had left the laptop and headset in the janitor's closet. 

He cursed, jumping out of bed. He glanced at the clock, realizing that it was halfway through his first class. And then he ran. Desperation drove him to the center of compound in minutes, and he threw open the closet door, hoping beyond hope that he somehow didn't mess this part up. 

The laptop and headset were nowhere to be found. Frantically, figuring that the situation couldn't get any worse, he flagged down a worker. 

“I left a laptop in this area last night and I can't find it anywhere, do you know where it went?”

The man, who looked to be in his mid-thirties, nodded. Keith grinned, his mood soaring. “But someone did take it.”

Keith's heart dropped. 

“Let me think, I believe he was part of the engineer class. Big fellow, full of smiles. He didn't say anything, just took it and left.”

Pidge. Keith thought. It had to have been Pidge. That meant that Pidge was still at the Galaxy Garrison. 

Keith grinned, and couldn't stop grinning. “Thank you, sir.” Then Keith sauntered off, sure that he was about to meet his first friend since Shiro. 

*  
To be continued.


	2. In which Hunk is very confused and is not Pidge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *WIP* There will be four chapters:   
> A scene with Katie/Pidge and Keith, "In which Pidge is breaking in and is not an engineer"  
> A scene with Keith and Hunk, "In which Hunk is very confused and is not Pidge"  
> A scene with Hunk and Lance, "In which Lance is totally very not jealous" (iS IT laNGST??!) (probably; i havent written it yet)  
> and a wrap up scene, "In which Hunk and Keith find each other and Lance is not an engineer".
> 
> If we can get o0ne thousand (1000) subscribes!!! i will regularly update!!!1!!
> 
> But for now: Have the second chapter:

Keith paced around the circular room that served as the common area of the Galaxy Garrison, wracking his brain for any scraps of information that he had about the mysterious Pidge. 

Unfortunately, he didn't have much to go on.   
Being tackled by the person had given Keith a rough estimate of their size: fairly large. And Pidge was an engineer. An engineer that, for whatever reason, had not been kicked out of the Garrison. Pidge also had the laptop, having taken it from the closet. 

He could ask around for whoever had the laptop. Or just scream Pidge until someone answered. 

He stood straight, unmoving, in the middle of the now bustling hallway. 

The idea that this person was somewhere- perhaps very near him, gave Keith a feeling in his chest that seemed to him like suffocation. 

His arm shot out, grasping the shoulder of the person that had been passing him in the hall. “Are you Pidge?” Keith said. 

The boy, who couldn't have been more than fifteen, shook his head, looking scared. Keith let his hand drop back to his side. 

“Pidge?” He called, starting quietly but getting louder, “Pidge?” 

The hallway was clearing out, the students trickling into dorms or classrooms. 

Keith's arm grasped another student. “Pidge?” He said. This boy towered over Keith, but the arm clutched in Keith's fingers was bony, nothing like who had tackled him the night before. 

This boy’s eyebrows furrowed. “No, dude. And stop yelling. You're being annoying.” The boy shrugged out of Keith's grip, starting to walk away. “You could check at the front office for your friend, but second period is starting so they'll yell at you.” 

Very little of that registered in Keith's mind. 

Dropping headfirst into a sprint, he dashed to the office. 

“Pidge?” He said, barreling breathless into the office. 

The man at the front desk cocked one eyebrow. “Excuse me?” 

Keith shook his head, swallowing the gasps that racked his body. “Pidge. Who are they?” 

The man looked even more confused. “I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to ask you to slow down and explain what you want. Are you looking for a student?”

Keith nodded. The long sprint had taken a lot out of him, which re-established the ideology that he needed to get into better shape. 

“Pidge.” 

The man swiveled in his chair to face the computer screen next to him. “Last name?” 

Keith just shook his head. “I don't know, sorry.”

The man blinked slowly. “Alright then.” Squinting at the screen, he continued. “Looks like you don't need it. There is no one named Pidge on this compound. Looks like she gave you a fake name, man.” 

She? Keith's eyebrows furrowed. “Pidge is a boy.” 

“Well, whatever floats your boat, but there's no Pidge attending the school. Sorry about that.” 

Keith started to breath harder, this time not because of the running. “Can you try Pigeon?” 

“What kind of a-? Okay, I guess.” The man said. A few keyboard clacks later, “No Pigeons. Sorry about that.” 

Keith brought one fist crashing onto the table in front of him, making the pens and stapler jump. He cursed. “Where is he then? Who is he?!” 

The receptionist blinked, swallowing. “Aren't you supposed to be in class?” 

Keith's eyes lit up and he did an about-face to the door. “Yeah. That's where he'll be. Thank you!” 

And Keith was off, running again; towards the engineering classroom. 

Keith barreled into the room with no plan, and it showed. He lost momentum only when he ran headlong into one of the desks. 

“Sorry.” The person sitting in the desk said, and Keith looked up. 

A big guy, possibly Samoan or a Pacific Islander, looked at Keith with kind eyes. 

There was one heart stopping moment that Keith became certain that this was Pidge. 

“Why did you say sorry? He was the one who ran into your desk.” This retort came from a boy with messy brown hair, who was sitting next to the big guy. 

The first boy shrugged. 

“Excuse me?” The professor at the front of the class spoke up. “Are you new here?” 

Keith, in a moment of panic, nodded. And regretted it immediately. 

“Then sit down. You obviously know Hunk, so feel free to sit with him and Lance.”

“I'm Hunk.” The bug guy said, smiling. 

The other boy pushed past Hunk to extend a handshake to Keith. “The name's Lance. And you are?”

Keith glanced at Hunk/Pidge. “My name,” he said, “Is actually Keith.” 

Lance's thin eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Okay, cool, dude.” 

Hunk smiled at Keith. “Nice hair.”

Keith touched his hair, which he hadn't thought about in probably years, but was suddenly very aware of. “Thanks.” He mumbled.

“Yeah.” Hunk said, still whispering under the instructors voice, “So what made you want to be an engineer?” 

Keith decided to come clean. “I'm not an engineer, I'm a fighter pilot. I came in here looking for someone and got flustered when the teacher talked to me.” 

Hunk grinned. “Hey man, that's cool. Lance isn't an engineer either, he's just here cuz he-”

Lance interjected, “I'm a cargo pilot but I'd rather be a fighter pilot.” 

“So you're in an engineering class?”

Lance ignored Keith's remark. “Hey, you're a fighter pilot. Whaddayasay you help a friend out?” 

Keith shrugged. “I just met you and I don't know how I would help you like that?”

Lance's face fell. “I get it.”

Keith started to speak again, out of confusion this time, but Hunk stopped him with one hand on his arm. 

“So who are you looking for, Keith?”

Keith took a breath. “Well, I don't know their name, honestly. But I know that they're an engineer.” 

Hunk frowned. “These are all the engineers at the Garrison, do you see who you're looking for?”

Keith sighed. “Look, Pidge.” He said suddenly. “I know it's you.”

Hunk blinked. “What?” 

But Keith wasn't listening. 

“I don't know why you weren't kicked out of Garrison, but I'm really glad you weren't because now we can figure out what happened to the Kerberos mission together and- “

Hunk opened his mouth in confusion, but Lance interrupted, “What about the Kerberos mission? I know everything about it. If there were baseball cards for space missions, I would have all of the ones for Kerberos. That doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?”

Keith blinked and turned his attention back to Hunk, ignoring Lance. 

“Pidge.” He said again, looking deep into Hunk’s brown eyes. “Do you not remember? What did they do to you?”

Hunk shook his head. “I hate to disappoint you, buddy, but I don't know what you're talking about. My name isn't Pidge, it's Hunk. And Lance is the expert on the Kerberos mission, not me.”

Keith’s heart dropped. “But, you were so nice to me.” He said, trying to sound more accusing than heartbroken. “And you're an engineer. And…” he paused, “A worker told me that someone who looked like you took Pidge's laptop from the closet this morning.” 

Hunk grinned. “All of that is true, actually. I actually have the laptop with me.”

Keith’s heart soared. “So you are Pidge?”

“Dude, no.” Lance said at the same time as Hunk muttered something apologetic under his breath. 

Keith deflated again. “But you have the laptop?” 

Hunk nodded, pulling said computer out of his bag. “I saw it and it interested me. But there's nothing cool on it, honestly.”

“Not to you, maybe,” Keith said, grabbing it as if it were a life force for him, “But maybe this will help me find Pidge.” 

 

Keith opened the laptop on the table, and Hunk leaned in close to him to watch. 

“See?” Hunk said.

Keith stared, dumbfounded, at the screen. 

There was no camera view, no microphone program. 

All that was on the screen was a pastel green loading bar at 69%. 

Keith waited. “Keith.” Hunk said. “I stared at that screen for at least twenty minutes and, you know, nothing.”

Keith flushed with anger. “What kind of a joke was this?”

Lance spoke again. Keith had honestly forgot he was there. 

“I think it's a good joke.” He said. “This computer, you know, can do sixty nine for days. Am I right, Hunk?”

Lance held up a hand for a high five, but Hunk was looking at Keith, concerned. 

“Hey, Keith.” he said. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shown you the laptop.”

Keith shook his head. “I'm glad you did. I would've kept thinking that you were Pidge if you hadn't.”

“Man, your brain as thick as your hair?”

Both Hunk and Keith ignored Lance's comment, staring at the screen. 

“Guys, that was funny, admit it. Come on, I didn't mean it. Keith, you seem like a really cool guy.”

Hunk glanced at Lance, smiling softly, then turned to Keith. 

“What do you say we make it up to you, man?” Hunk slung one arm over Keith's shoulders, pulling him close. 

Keith tensed at the sudden contact. “What do you mean?” 

“Yeah,” Lance said. “What do you mean?”

Hunk grinned, his face very close to Keith's. “Do you wanna come to to lunch with me and Lance? We can see if we can help you find Pidge.” 

Keith struggled away from Hunk's closeness to look him in the eyes.

“Sure, I guess,” he said. “I don't normally do anything during lunch.”

Hunk grinned. 

“Cool!” He said. “We'll be in the common area. How does Chinese sound?”

Lance interjected, grinning. “Well it's a very respectable language that I wish that I had the constitution to learn but I guess its sounds-”

Keith smiled. “Chinese sounds great.”

Lance trailed off, his face falling.

Keith’s favorite food was not Chinese. The last time that he had had Chinese, actually, he remembered throwing up in the back of his flight simulator all over the rest of his crew. 

But if Hunk liked it, he figured that it wouldn’t be too bad.

Hunk, meanwhile, had had Chinese the day before. “Lance.” He hissed, watching Keith to make sure that Keith was vaguely distracted by the professor talking. 

“Yeah?” Lance said, eyebrows furrowed. 

“I had Chinese yesterday, why did I ask him if he wanted Chinese?” 

Lance shrugged. ”I dunno, maybe you have a crush on him.” 

Hunk’s eyebrows furrowed. “I think I just really like Chinese.” 

Keith looked over at the two other boys, suddenly attentive. “What’s that?’

Hunk shook his head. “Just talking about food. Man, I’m hungry.”

Keith grinned. “Me too.” 

Neither of them noticed that as soon as Hunk looked away from Lance, Lance’s smile dropped into an expression of disgust.

 

After the class, Lance and Hunk went to their dorms, which were on the opposite end of the campus to Keith’s, parting ways with the promise of meeting back in the commons in 10 minutes. 

Lance didn’t say a word as they walked down the hall, trudging a little bit behind Hunk, his eyes low. 

After a long second, Hunk looked at Lance.“You okay, buddy?” 

“Yeah, I’m good, man,” Lance said, smiling lightly and then going back to stare at the floor. 

Hunk smiled wide. “You know you can tell me anything, right? You’re my pal, my dude, my man.”

Lance looked up again, the weak smile back on his face. “I know, Hunk. I’m alright. Just tired.”

They had reached Lance and Hunk’s dorms, which were across the hall from each other. 

“You’d better not be lying to me, dude.” Hunk said, and Lance breathed out his nose in an odd attempt at a laugh.  
“Don’t worry, Hunk. But I’m gonna pass on the whole lunch thing. I’m not feeling too peptastic, you know?” 

“Do you want me to stay with you?” Hunk said, suddenly ten times more concerned. 

Lance shook his head, “Naw, I’m just gonna sleep.” 

Hunk stopped him with a hand on his shoulder as Lance started towards his room, “You sure?”

Lance shrugged and nodded his head, looking up at Hunk. “Yeah, I’m sure.” He said, chuckling a little. “Go ahead and go on your date.” 

He laughed again. The more that Lance laughed, the less that Hunk believed that he actually meant the humor. But Hunk didn’t have a chance to say anything, because Lance had slung open the door to his dorm and gone inside.

 

And the door was shut, leaving Hunk with no idea what happened or what to do next. 

But the most obvious answer was have lunch with Keith. So Hunk grabbed his wallet from his dorm and set off towards the common area, his heart in his mouth. 

 

“Is your hair...wet?” Hunk asked this as soon as he saw Keith in the common area, slouching in a squishy couch. Keith smiled, embarrassed. 

“Well, I saw that it was a mess and i meant to just make it damp? But I was rushing so here we are.”

“Yeah.” Hunk grinned, laughing a little. “Here we are.” he rocked on his heels for a second, and the two boys looked at each other for a long moment. 

Then Keith stood up. “So,” he said, “Chinese?” 

Hunk’s stomach growled in response and Keith laughed. “Good thing the place isn’t very far.”

In his dormitory, Lance curled into himself, his whole body burrowing into his bed, stiff. His breathing was heavy, rasping in and out of his clenched teeth. He couldn’t get that Keith kid out of his mind. The way that it felt like as soon as he talked, Hunk acted like Lance didn’t exist. 

It made him sick, but Hunk looked so happy talking to Keith that Lance couldn’t say anything. So he tried to fall into a fitful sleep to wait for the bell for class. 

Keith and Hunk, in the commons, turned to leave through the front extending hall, and after a moment of hesitation, Hunk slung one over Keith’s bony shoulders. This time, Keith didn’t move away from the big guy, and grinned as they walked.


	3. In which Lance is totally fine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is not fine; I'm not fine oof

“Unfortunately, our fryers are completely down. We have to close until they're back up and running.” The server’s face was genuinely apologetic, and Hunk looked skeptically at the long line behind them. 

“Are you sure?” Hunk started to say, just as Keith noticed the same thing and balled up his fists. 

“You have to close until you're back up and running.” Keith said, not really at the server, but just in general. 

“Keith,” Hunk said, one hand on Keith's arm. “That doesn't make any sense.” 

Keith rolled his eyes but smiled at Hunk’s soft voice. “Sure it does.”

They wandered out of the Chinese restaurant, unsure of what to do with the remaining forty ish minutes before they had to be back at the Garrison. 

“So,” Keith said. “What now?”

Hunk shrugged. “We could get ice cream? There's a place on the way back.” 

Keith’s stomach growled, and Hunk smiled. 

“What's your next class?” Hunk asked. 

Keith smiled up at him. “I've got Technical Field Combat and Research. You?” 

“Differing Mathematics in the Vacuum of Space.” 

“That sounds terrible, if I'm being honest. Can I say that it sounds terrible?

Hunk laughed. “You're good. It's pretty boring if you're not interested. Kind of like clams in that it's an acquired taste.”

Keith had never tried clams, and his face seemed to show it.

“You've never tasted clams, have you?” 

Keith shook his head, aware that they were now walking back, toward the direction of the Garrison. 

“They're really kind of whacky, to be honest. They're usually served as this soupy, jello-like meat and butter dish, with the shell just cracked open after being steamed or boiled. But I've been meaning to try and serve them boiled plain and then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and a dash of nutmeg.” 

Keith looked up at Hunk, mystified. 

“You know a lot about food. I thought you were an engineer.” 

Hunk smiled. “Yeah, I'm an engineer. But I'm huge foodie. Engineering and mechanical stuff is fun, but comes easy to me. Even when I was a kid, I could dismantle and put back together most anything I put effort into. But food, cooking, is just, just, really invigorating. There's so many ways to cook things, you know?”

Keith, who had been living off of uncooked dry noodle packages, chocolate milk, and whatever he could scavenge at the Garrison cafeteria, nodded like he knew exactly what Hunk was talking about. 

Looking up, the two boys realized that they had reached the bus stop that they had taken to get to the town and the Chinese restaurant.

Hunk looked at his watch, suddenly realizing exactly what time it was and how much time had actually passed since they left the restaurant, then looked at Keith. 

Hunk opened his mouth to express concern about Keith getting to his next class, but Keith talked before him. 

“How strongly, exactly, do you feel about Differing Mathematics in the Vacuum of Space?”

Hunk shrugged. “Pretty strongly. It is, after all, how we plan on getting into, staying in, and surviving in space.”

Keith rolled his eyes and took a deep breath, trying desperately to hold on to the nonchalant feeling that Hunk gave him. 

The question came in one breath, “Would you like to skip class with me so we can get ice cream?”

Hunk grinned, mystifying Keith yet again. 

“I think that sounds okay,” Hunk said, squeezing Keith's shoulders with one outstretched arm, “despite the pressing dangers of the vacuum of space.”

Keith laughed. 

And noticed, with a slight hitched breath, that Hunk left his arm around Keith's shoulders as they passed the bus stop and started walking to the ice cream place. 

This time, despite it being similar to the first time that Hunk had slung one arm over Keith’s shoulders, it felt different. 

Hunk felt tense somehow, simultaneously more comfortable and so much less comfortable than he had been in a long time.

Hunk had never been stressed about hugging someone or showing affection to someone. 

But Keith made him scared, a little bit. 

So hunk kept a soft vice of an arm around Keith shoulders as they walked, afraid that if he let go, Keith would not let him do it again. 

And slowly, maybe it was Hunk's imagination, but Keith relaxed a little bit. 

Back in his room at the garrison, Lance still sat, now stone faced, on his bed. 

He didn't really know what bothered him about Keith. It just did. 

And the only person he could talk to about it was Hunk, who couldn't see anything wrong with Keith if it danced in front of him. 

There was no way that Hunk did not have a crush on Keith. Which shouldn't have affected Lance in any way. He was happy for the big guy. And that didn't bother him, not really. 

At least, that's what Lance kept repeating to himself under his breath. 

That there was no way that this Keith guy was going to get between Hunk and him. 

No matter how much Hunk liked him. 

Lance stood, his eyes narrowed. He stood, just standing, for a long moment. 

And it seemed that the Garrison itself knew what Lance needed, because at that moment, the bell for lunch to end sounded, harsh and shrill, in the hall outside. 

Lance breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He'd be able to talk to Hunk, to apologize for not coming to lunch, and to maybe express that Keith bothered him. 

There was a part of Lance that needed never to see Keith again. 

It was small, but it was there; deeply rooted in the memory of when Hunk and him first met. 

There was no way that Hunk hadn't thought that Lance was weird the first time that he met him. Lance and his siblings would play in the sprinklers everyday, even in parts of winter. 

So when Hunk, someone who hated the cold, moved across the street in mid September when the two boys couldn't have been older than 8, he marched over and confronted the little Cuban boy. 

“You asked me what the heck I thought I was doing and you told me that it was like, 20 degrees,” Lance said, as if Hunk was there with him, smiling as he retold the tale. 

Lance, his smile fading, vividly remembered telling Hunk that it was to build tolerance for any type of pain. 

Hunk quickly discovered that Lance was the type of kid that tried to be metal, but cried for days when they fell. 

But for some reason, a reason that Lance held on to every day, Hunk was friends with him. 

Lance wandered over to his dorm door, starting for the handle, smiling at the thought of seeing Hunk and telling him about, leaving out the before and after, his incredible nap. 

Hunk would express jealousy, and Lance would tease him for choosing Keith over a nap. 

Lance turned the handle, and started walking towards “Differing Mathematics in the Vacuum of Space”, a smile on his face.


	4. In which Hunk and Keith find each other and Lance is not an engineer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> welp the chapter went a little different than I wanted it to but here we are and the title doesn't match what the chapter covers really at all tbh oof

It seemed that from that day on, Lance spent the rest of his time at the garrison looking at the back of Keith’s head. 

It got to the point where Lance couldn't remember what Keith's face looked like, only the back of his head. 

And from where Lance was sitting, it certainly looked like a mullet. 

Hunk didn't stop talking to Lance. Far from, actually. 

Keith didn't actually become a staple in their group, instead, only cropping up when him and Hunk hung out in between classes. 

And Lance tried not to think a lot about Hunk being Keith’s engineer in flight simulations. Which Lance tried not to think about not being allowed to be part of. 

Not thinking helped Lance a lot in that 6 months.

That is, until Keith was kicked out of the garrison. 

It was a day like any other: Lance woke up, got dressed, left his room at the same time as Hunk did, gave Hunk a high five is they went to their first class, and talked about dumb stuff until they got there. 

But despite it actually being a shared class, Keith wasn't there. 

Keith had gradually grown to be on time most of the time, in order to talk to Hunk before class started.

But he wasn't there that day. 

It was then that the two boys heard the scuffling in the hall. 

And a familiar voice, screaming. 

The voice belonged to Keith, but it sounded like his vocal cords had been ripped out. 

His words were strangled, and Hunk's eyes went wide as he deciphered them. 

“You’ll never catch them, I've been trying for months!” There was a harsh, bleating laugh, and then a bitter, repeated, “I've been trying for months.” 

And then, there was a high pitched scratched, screeching, wrenching gasp of a scream that made Hunk stand without realizing it. 

It echoed in his ears, bouncing from one end of his skull to another. 

Lance, seating in his chair, reached up and grabbed Hunk's arm. Why was he so worked up? The staff had been trying to catch someone who had been caught helping to infiltrate the security at the Garrison for months.

Hunk didn't hear a long-hunted capture finally taking place. 

He heard Keith, screaming. 

Hunk, acting like Lance was nothing more than a fly landing on hs arm, stood like an attentive dog, with utter focus. 

The professor started to scold him for standing, for interrupting class; but by that time, Hunk was already running. 

He dashed into the hall, trying to find the source of the heart wrenching cries. But to his surprise, nothing was there. 

It was as if Hunk had imagined it all. 

But he knew he hadn't. 

He never found out why Keith had been taken from the Garrison; had been taken from Hunk. 

But then, months later, someone else joined the Garrison. 

A shrimp of a kid named Pidge. 

And the moment that Hunk heard Pidge’s name, it triggered something deep inside him that he may have been suppressing for those months since Keith disappeared. 

So he searched the kid's diary, needing to know everything about the mysterious Pidge, including that she was, in fact, a girl. 

He found that information with Keith in mind, who he didn't even know was alive or not. 

And a long time later, Lance and Hunk followed Pidge to the roof, expecting to find more secrets. 

But instead, directly following the discovery that his hero was still alive, Lance, sitting on a rooftop, high above the desert, caught a glimpse of the only thing he had seen for 6 months. 

And through gritted teeth, he expressed the same words that he could have said so long ago, “Oh great, Keith.”

And how could the other two not know? It was so obviously Keith, despite the red bandana, and the new sand cruiser. 

And how could Hunk have such a hopeful expression, knowing as he must, how Lance felt about Keith?

And how could Pidge, who started it all, act so clueless?

But then he realized. Keith must've used a different name. Pidge used his real name because he knew that Keith would have no idea who he was. 

But there was no way that Keith was going to steal someone else from Lance. 

And so he dashed down, kicking up dust and grime, to the downed ship just after Keith. 

Thinking it was impossible that Keith not remember who he was, that he could finally, maybe, get some sort of apology, some sort of recognition. 

But instead, with one arm draped around the person that he had looked up to for forever, Keith looked him in the face, and didn't remember. 

“Are you an engineer?” He asked, his eyes wide.


End file.
